It started off kind of fuzzy, like I was in some sort of a daze. I rubbed my eyes, blinking rapidly. Then, the picture became a little clearer to me.

There I was, sitting in a bare room with both of my children. What? What was this place? As I looked around further, I discovered we were in a row of desks inside what looked like a classroom. There was a stern looking woman (I’m assuming a teacher) at the front of the room and an even sterner looking man at the back.An App To Help You Manage Time

They were using hand signals to communicate. Whoa, the man just threw his hand forward and down with a sharp, chopping motion. The woman nodded, then took her forefinger and drew it across her neck slowly, purposefully. That couldn’t be good.

Nope, I had a bad feeling about this one. My stomach began to turn and beads of liquid appeared on my forehead. Whatever was going on, it was not good. Suddenly, the man pointed to the whiteboard behind him. In large red letters were the words, “You should have written it down. I told you today was the deadline.”

If you’re anything like me and attempting to manage parenthood in the 21st century, you’ve probably had some dreams similar to the one above.

There’s always that nagging little fear, somewhere in my mind, that I’ve forgotten to write down something very important. For me, everything has to get put down on my cell phone’s calendar. If it doesn’t, it’s long forgotten and flowing in the tumultuous wind of my nightmares. It’s gotten that way for kids, too. Between the numerous projects, essays, and extracurricular activities, it seems even they have an abundance of tasks and a scarcity of time.

Therefore, one of the best gifts you can give your kids is to teach them how to use a calendar.

Believe it or not, knowing how to properly manage time using a calendar is a skill and develops over time. But like all things these days, technology is here to help. All you need is an iPad or other tablet. Former teachers have developed numerous apps that can help even the youngest of learners.

Download the “What’s Today” app and you will find simple icons, colorful buttons and voice support features to aid you and your youngster. Here, you can also use personalized photos and have the ability to mark off days in succession as they pass. For $An App To Help You Manage Time1.99 you can create up to six logins, so that parents and teachers can get in on the fun as well.

For the more burgeoning student, there are a lot of apps around. You might want to do some searching on the Play Store to find the one that best fits your student’s needs. These will require that your student has already retained certain basic reading and mathematical skills. I can recommend “Studiez Pro” for these learners. This app has numerous calendar views and allows the user to either fit their life into the calendar or vice versa. By this I mean that, at times, busy schedules can dictate our free time instead of the other way around.

Finally, if technology is not your thing, you can still go the old fashioned route here. For those early learners, be sure to create a calendar full of visual representations while their fundamental skills are still being acquired. Older students can also go this route by using a desktop calendar or notebook organizer. What’s important is that they estimate their time properly. For example, they may need some help